It is known that hollow, plastic articles, such as containers, may be formed by blow molding techniques. A tubular parison of thermoplastic material that has been softened sufficiently to allow expansion under internal pressure is clamped at its opposite ends between a pair of mold halves. The cavity in the mold surrounds the parison. Air is injected into the interior of the parison under pressure through a blow needle or blow pin. The air pressure causes the parison to expand until it conforms to the shape of the mold cavity. When the mold sections are separated, the hollow molded article is removed from the mold and excess material such as tail and/or neck moils are separated from the article, if necessary. The removal of the article from the mold is usually achieved by merely opening the mold sections and allowing the article to fall therefrom. In those cases where the article does not freely fall, mechanisms have been devised which knock the article out of the mold halves. In these instances there is no precision placement of the article, and the article is usually allowed to fall into a collection bin. The articles then must be removed from the bin, usually by hand, and sent to a second station where excess plastic is removed. As can be appreciated, the utilization of hand labor resulting from this imprecise method of article placement is costly and thus derogates from process efficiency.
Therefore it is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for removing blown plastic articles from mold halves which allows for precision placement of the removed article. It is another object of this invention to provide an apparatus for positive removal of hollow plastic articles from mold halves. It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus for removing blown plastic articles from blow molding machines which apparatus is adapted for use on different types of blow molding machines.